Objective:To study the influence of anesthesia with propofol or with ketamine on autonomic nerve function in children. Methods: 35 children aged 3-8 years old undergoing general anesthesia for palatoplasty with ASAⅠ-Ⅱ cleft palate were randomly divided into 2 groups, group Ⅰ(ketamine group,n=17)and group Ⅱ (propofol group, n=18).The low frequency (LF), high frequency (HF), ratio of low frequency and high frequency (LF/HF),total power (LF+HF), MAP, HR and SpO_2 were recorded before anesthesia (T0), after intubation (T1), incision of skin(T2), 1 h after the begining of operation(T3), after the completion of operation(T4) and extubation (T5). Results:In the 2 groups the values of LF, HF, LF/HF and LF+HF at T1-T4 were significantly lower than those at T0 (P0.05). In group Ⅱ,the indexes of HRV at T2-T5 were significantly lower than those in group Ⅰ(P